Second Chances
by ArkonWinfel
Summary: (Rewrite of Assassin's Creed: Justice War) Desmond just knew it. He shouldn't have expected anything less from her. She was manipulative, evil, and worst of all, she had prepared. If he had a dollar for overtime he'd been...No. Either way, this was a second chance, and he shouldn't pass it up. Let's show the world a REAL Assassin. (No pairings. Don't own AC)


**Chapter 1**

 **Chapter is a bit rushed, but I'd liked to get into the good stuff.**

 **Translations are quoted in italics and I'll indicate which language it's in, also means communication over radio/video.**

 **Forewords: Desmond leaves The Farm later, but was born later, so he arrives in Metropolis at the age of 17, having left the farm at age 16. Also, the Temple in AC3 will not have been the Grand Temple on Earth-16.**

 **As for powers, he will not have any abnormal powers, but is very skilled in melee combat and stealth, along with voice manipulation.**

* * *

 **Grand Temple**

 **December 12, 2012**

"You know it's true. It's already started. I need to do this now. So go! GO!"

It had to be done, no matter how much his father wanted otherwise. No matter how much he wanted to see his mother. No matter how likely it was that Juno was going to absolutely fuck them over. Again. Just like she had with Lucy.

He laughed to himself. He had always wanted to be a hero, yet he had never thought it would be like this.

Losing his mind to his ancestors lost to the centuries and listening to what surmounted to aliens that had 'designed' his very species arguing over the fate of humanity.

And the decision to sacrifice himself for that fate.

All he had to do was put his hand on the glowing, spherical pedestal before him. Which, for all the 'treasure hunting' he had done for the First Civilization, it was a pretty anti-climatic ending to his life.

It had been a heck of a last few months alive, though, huh?

Desmond cautiously, yet body stepped towards the orb, raising his right hand just above the pedestal. He lowered it and light burst out in lines. His head was thrown back. He could feel the arm burning— _instant and painless my ass, Juno!_ —and subconsciously reached down with his other arm as if trying to pull away, but his hand was locked.

The light died out and Desmond fell back.

 _I always wanted to be a hero_.

* * *

Desmond awoke screaming and being restrained by someone, "Snap out of it, Desmond!" He felt a fist collide with his cheek and heard a gasp, "WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

Desmond's eyes snapped open and he grabbed the arms that were holding him down, pulling them in further and head butting their owner. Next, he brought his legs up between the two and launched his offender off of him.

Rolling off of the bed, he snapped his wrists back, expecting a blade to appear, but nothing happened. He looked down at his wrists, confused, then took in his surroundings. He was at the Farm

Before he had the chance to censor himself, he spoke aloud in Italian, _"Where am I?"_

Desmond looked up to see the man he thrown onto the ground. It was his father, but he looked…younger. William Miles picked himself up and spoke, "Why can't you ever do that your spars? Here I was thinking you were letting all this go through your head. And when did you learn Italian?"

Desmond raised his hands to his head, "No…This isn't right. Dad? Where am I? Did I pull it off? Where's Shaun and Rebecca?"

William looked at him like he had lost his mind, "Who are you talking about? I don't know a Shaun or a Rebecca, and I don't know what you would have pulled off."

"Shaun Hasting and Rebecca Crane? Come on, they were in the Grand Temple with us. I saved the world from the solar flare?"

William sighed, "Son, I think you had a pretty rough nightmare, okay. Go back to sleep." He said, turning around.

"But if the world is saved, and I'm still alive, then I can help fight Juno and Abstergo!" Desmond's words fell on deaf ears as William left the room.

Desmond felt a weight on his bed and looked over to see his mother, "Honey, are you okay? Who's this Juno? Do I have to start worrying about grandchildren already?"

"MOM!" Desmond protested, his voice cracking, which stopped him for a second. That hadn't happened in nearly a decade. "Juno's not my girlfriend or anything, she's a part of the First Civilization and she want's to re-enslave humanity."

"Okay, honey." his mother said, obviously not believing him, "And how about this Abstergo fellow?"

Desmond looked at his mother as if she had grown three heads, "Abstergo's not a person, mom, it's a pharmaceutical company." When he saw that it wasn't ringing any bells, he continued, "The front company for the Templars?"

"Honey, what are you talking about? The Templars are dead. That's all the way back in the Crusades"

"What? No. That's not possible! This isn't REAL! WHO ARE YOU?!"

"Desmond, please, calm down and try to get some sleep, okay? You obviously need the rest."

Desmond watched as his mother shut the door behind her and he curled up on his bed, tears stinging his eyes. It was bad enough with the Bleeding Effect that everyone thought he was crazy, but now they decide to play cruel jokes on him.

* * *

When Desmond woke up the next morning, pillow wet with tears, he did his best to make himself presentable. He got up and walked out of his room and, eventually, found his way to the bathroom. It wasn't like it the Farm or any of the safe houses or even his room in Abstergo. It was more like a suburban home.

He had been in the process of stripping down to shower when he saw what was wrong. It was his body. His face. His EVERYTHING! He was younger than he supposed to be. He looked at the calendar on the wall and couldn't believe his eyes. It was 2012 still, but he looked like he was only ten! _The hell?_ he wondered.

He entered the shower, forgetting to take off his underwear even, and contemplated his situation.

* * *

 **The Farm**

 **March 13, 2014**

During the next five years, Desmond had shown incredible discipline. He had attended every training session, every spar, and was constantly working to become stronger and faster than he had been before Juno—the fucking bitch couldn't have just let him die, could she?—had fucked him over.

It was now his fifteenth birthday, and what he had gotten was better than anything his family could have gotten him. He had run away again. Over the two years, Desmond had saved up quite a lot of money, and he had bought a plane ticket to Rome without his parents knowledge. It had been easy to run to the highway and hitchhike to the nearest road. He had been training for years to do this.

He only wished he didn't have to do it.

* * *

 **Coliseum, Rome**

 **Summer, 2014**

Desmond navigated the ruins of the once great arena by memory, hitting every switch and lever there was to activate. It was easy for him because Abstergo wasn't a thing anymore, which meant all he had to worry about was local authorities and that was a joke.

He almost absent-mindedly picked up the Apple when he opened the Vault, but was surprised to feel how hollow it felt. Suddenly, a Minerva revealed herself, "You are not supposed to be here. I fixed this timeline just for you. You were supposed to come here and leave it be, Desmond, yet you push to bring back the conflict that has taken so many lives. Why do you persist?"

"Because without the Assassins, who fights for the free will of all mankind? I don't know why, but neither Assassins or Templars are here anymore."

"They are here, but you must look deeper, if this is what you so desire. This world was a chance to have a normal life, and you have wasted it."

With that, Minerva disappeared. _Good riddance_. Desmond thought to himself as he left the Coliseum, memories flooding through his head, both his and Ezio's.

* * *

 **Happy Harbor, Rhode Island**

 **January 4, 2016**

Desmond had done all the research he could. He had tried to locate other places, some sort of alternative. There was no other way. He had to infiltrate Mount Justice to get to the Grand Temple. It was his only chance of revealing what he was going up against, to know what Juno truly was, ad it had to be in the former base of the Justice League.

He supposed it could be worse. It could have been occupied, so its being abandoned was a plus.

He went out in the sailboat he rented and waited for nightfall to arrive, checking over his hidden blades and baton several times over.

Finally, once the sun had set, Desmond suited up in his full scuba suit and dove into the water, headed towards Mount Justice.

* * *

 **The Cave**

 **January 4, 2016**

Mal stood in the center of the Cave's Mission Room, monitoring the progress of the different Teams as they took down the Krolotean bases on the Planet. The teams were making progress, but the aliens kept slipping through their fingers.

 _"And Gamma?"_ Nightwing's voice rang through his earpiece.

"Yeah, about them…" Suddenly, the Cave's proximity alarms went off. "Uh…about me! The Cave's proximity alarms just went off. Someone is too close for comfort, but I can't see them!"

Mal might not have, but Nightwing knew what that meant, _"Then whoever it is is already inside. Transfer Mission Control to the me and stay out of sight. I'm sending Beta for backup."_

"Roger that." Mal said, turning off the projector and the lights in the Mission Room before running towards the kitchen.

Desmond himself had just surfaced within Mount Justice's interior and was climbing out of the water by the time the alarms went off. _Strange. It's supposed to be abandoned, but power is on and so is security. I suppose they can do that, but still, why? What are they protecting?_

Desmond pulled off his scuba mask and looked around, and was surprised to see the door to The Grand Temple just sitting there, behind a few crates. He pulled the apple out of his bag and inserted it into the door, stepping back as the door slid upwards, radiating golden light.

Just as he was about to step in, he sensed someone behind him and spun around, kicking the metal object away from him, drawing his own baton. He got into his fighting stance and looked at his attacker. The man was big, young, and had dark skin, along with a knife in his hand.

"So what are you," Desmond stated, lowering his voice, "A squatter? In Mount Justice?"

"Could say the same for you!" said the man, thrusting the blade towards Desmond. The Assassin dodged the strike and grabbed the arm, pushing it down and bringing his knee up into his attackers face.

Mal's head rocked back, but the intruder wasn't done, and struck him in the ribs with a fist, harder than his profile would have suggested possible. A hammer fist struck down on his collar bone and Mal could feel the fracture as he cried out.

The baton Mal had seen the boy bring slapped him hard across the temple, nearly knocking him unconscious as the boy brought Mal's arm behind his back and pushed Mal to the ground, "Here I was, thinking this would be a boring task. I mean, sure, it's Mount Justice and all, but it was supposed to be abandoned, yet here I am, fighting a man who is most definitely not squatting. So that leaves one question, "Where are the others?"

Suddenly, Desmond' grabbed his head and screamed, taking his baton and swinging it wildly at unknown phantoms. Mal slowly got up and looked at the boy as he swung at the air as if he was trying to kill it.

Batgirl ran down the stairs, following Wolf to the intruder as he pounced upon the assailant. The boy had stage gauntlets on his arms and a tactical baton, but other than that, he appeared as though he was just a scuba diver looking for a thrill.

Desmond was literally knocked back to reality as Wolf tackled him, instincts from Connor kicking in immediately, but then he saw just how BIG the canine was. It was as big as some of the bears that Connor had hunted, and most likely more agile.

He managed to kick the beast off of him just in time for a fist to strike him across the face. Twisting around into a fighting position, he recognized his assailant as Batgirl, "What are you doing out of Gotham, red?"

"I heard about some wacko running around and wanted to see just how ugly he was. Who are you and how did you get into Mount Justice?" Batgirl said, swinging a kick towards the intruders head.

"I think that should be obvious, isn't it?" Desmond retorted, holding the leg aimed at his head and bringing foot down upon where the girls leg would have been. Batgirl, however, had jumped up and brought a double hammer fist down towards Desmond's neck.

Desmond had seen the leg kick up and expected an aerial attack, rolling forward and under the Bat as she landed, sending a leg out behind him as the Batgirl swept his legs.

The two fighters were sent careening away from each other as their attacks connected. Batgirl, however, had backup, as Desmond learned the hard way when a small burst of energy hit his temple and knocked him unconscious.

Batgirl stood up and put her hand to her earpiece, "Nightwing, we have a situation."

 _"What_ ** _kind_** _of situation?"_

"You know that wall in the Groto? The one with the strange hole in it and glowing lines? Uh…apparently, that's a door."

 _"Excuse me?"_ Nightwing said, confused. _"What do you mean it's a door?"_

"I don't **know**! Just…look, just get here and look at it for yourself."

 _"Just go in and look around!"_

"Look, **Nightwing** , the Batcave is fine, but this is different. It feels…ancient. I think this might be older than Mount Justice itself, and I want some sort of powerhouse in case it's a super-powered jail cell."

 _"Alright. We just picked up Gamma, and we'll be back in a half an hour-ish. Stay traught, Nigthwing out."_

Batgirl looked down at the intruder, "Now, let's get **you** to a **cell**."

* * *

 **Also, I moved the Grand Temple so that Mount Justice is atop of the ruins of the entrance of it.**

 **Desmond's Hero outfit is based off his AC3 outfit, but the hoodie goes knee length and has a copy of Nightwing's armor underneath it without the logo. He also wears a full face cowl, somewhat like Batman Beyond without the ears or mouth. A red and gold utility belt keeps his hoodie from flapping all over the place.**

 **The dual Hidden Gauntlets are worn under the in the open and have a Hidden Pivot Blade with hardened knuckle plates and built in grapnel guns. He carries several Wing-Dings in his utility belt. As a full hand-held weapon, he carries a collapsing baton.**

 **Updates** **:**

 **Chapter 1: August 13, 2015**


End file.
